144 FORAGE CROPS. 



at a later period. The cultivation should be prompt 

 and generous, more especially when the plants 

 are young. 



Pasturing. — But little can be said as to the best 

 modes of pasturing off this crop in the present state 

 of our knowledge. It has not been much grown for 

 pasture, although some instances are on record 

 where it has been so grown. There would seem to 

 be no good reasons why it should not be pastured off 

 by sheep and swine and even by cattle, although 

 cattle would doubtless waste more or less through 

 treading upon the plants. At the Minnesota Univer- 

 sity experiment station, lambs fed off the pods and 

 leaves, but not the coarse stems. Cattle and sheep 

 unused to soy bean pasture might not take kindly to 

 it at first, but doubtless they would soon become 

 fond of it. A view of sheep pasturing on soy beans 

 is presented in Figure 19. 



Ohservations. — i. For making hay, the soy 

 bean should be cut when the beans in the pod are 

 fully half grown, or before the lower leaves begin 

 to fall freely, and the aim should be to handle it but 

 little during the curing process, lest many of the 

 leaves should be lost. 



2. The soy bean is an excellent soiling plant, 

 since it produces a large yield of green food per 

 acre and very rich in quality. 



3. When mixed with corn in the silo the qual- 

 ity of the ensilage is thereby considerably improved. 



